If you followed our election night live blog, you saw reports from other news outlets predicting wins and losses for the state propositions. Hold your horses, folks. Mark DiCamillo, director of the non-partisan Field Poll, reminds us that there are still many outstanding (eg: mail-in ballots) that haven’t yet been counted.

“There could be as many as 2 million votes outstanding by the time all the votes are counted tonight,” said DiCamillo.

That means we’ll have to wait until Wednesday morning at the earliest for final results — potentially even later in the week.

A tax on soda would carry the greatest health benefits for black and Latino Californians, who face the highest risks of diabetes and heart disease, according to recent research findings.

The study found that if a penny-per-ounce tax was applied to soda, cuts in consumption would result in an 8 percent decline in diabetes cases among blacks and Latinos. The statewide reduction in new diabetes cases is projected at 3 to 5.6 percent, according to researchers from UC San Francisco, Columbia University and Oregon State University, who released their findings at last week’s American Public Health Association annual meeting in San Francisco.

The study was unveiled as a sugar-sweetened beverage tax faces votes in El Monte, in Los Angeles County, and Richmond, in the Bay Area. A statewide excise tax was proposed but died in the California Legislature in 2010.

The statewide reduction in new diabetes cases is projected at 3 to 5.6 percent.

Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, said he has visited Richmond to urge support for the measure. He said he heard residents speak of loved ones who’ve been affected by diabetes complications — such as limb amputations and blindness — during a recent town hall meeting at a Richmond church.

Goldstein said residents of both cities, though, face the pressure of nearly $3 million in spending by the beverage industry, which opposes the measures. Continue reading →

The ballot measure to repeal California’s death penalty and replace it with life without parole appears to be gaining ground, according to the latest Field Poll.

For the first time, supporters of Proposition 34 outnumber opponents, 45 percent to 38 percent.

But a fairly large portion, 17 percent, are undecided.

Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo says voters seem persuaded by the argument that the death penalty is more expensive than life in prison.

“Back in 1989, voters by a 2-1 margin felt that it was cheaper to implement the death penalty than to house somebody in prison for life,” he said. “Now, more voters — by a 5-3 margin — think its actually cheaper to house prisoners for life.”

Demonstrators chanted outside the home of multi-millionaire Charles Munger, Jr. Thursday afternoon in one of Palo Alto’s most exclusive neighborhoods, protesting Munger’s $35 million in donations to fight Governor Brown’s tax measure, Proposition 30. Munger is the leading funder of the opposition to the initiative, which would raise taxes temporarily in order to avoid big trigger cuts in this year’s state budget.

San Leandro resident Patrick Jerome Forte came with the California Alliance for Retired Americans and said, “That’s not how the elections are done in California. You can’t buy our vote. You can not influence us to vote the way you want us to. Take your money back!”

Munger chairs the Santa Clara County Republican Party of Silicon Valley. He was not home during the protest.

A recent Field poll showed support for Prop 30 had slipped below 50 percent, which it needs to exceed in order for it to pass. But 14 percent of voters still remain undecided, and Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo told KQED that a majority of undecideds approve of the governor’s job performance and are concerned about potential budget cuts if the measure fails. “All these things indicate to me that the governor’s measure is in fairly decent shape,” DiCamillo said.

Charles Munger’s sister, Molly Munger, has contributed $44 million to a rival tax measure, Proposition 38. That initiative is trailing badly in polls.

A new Field Poll out today shows that Governor Brown’s tax increase measure, Proposition 30, has dropped below the 50 percent it needs to pass. The poll shows 48 percent of voters in support and 38 percent opposed, with 14 percent undecided.

Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo says Proposition 38, a rival tax measure put on the ballot by education advocate Molly Munger, has drawn off some of Prop 30’s support. “Prop 38 is pulling some voters away from 30,” he told Capital Public Radio’s Ben Adler. “We’re measuring it at 9 percent.” Despite that switch, support for Prop 38 was measured at just 34 percent, down 12 percent from July.

DiCamillo said there is still hope for Brown’s measure, as undecided voters could be more likely to vote yes in the end. DiCamillo cited the survey’s finding that a majority of undecideds approve of the governor’s job performance and are concerned about potential budget cuts if the measure fails.

“So all these things indicate to me that the governor’s measure is in fairly decent shape,” DiCamillo said.

If you want to sport this sticker, you'll have to decipher the state ballot and then vote. (EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images)

by Lisa Aliferis and Jon Brooks

It’s getting down to the wire — just seven days to make up your mind on a plethora of issues and races … and then ya gotta vote.

Lucky you: We’re here to help.

Our reports about Props. 30 and 38 (education and taxes); the nine-item Prop. 31 (governance) and Prop. 37 (labeling GMO foods) are attracting a lot of attention online. So either we’ve really figured out this SEO thing, or you’re genuinely interested in those initiatives in particular.

Thus, we’re compiling the best-of-the-best of our coverage on these props so that you don’t have to stand in the voting booth pondering whether numerological concerns aren’t going to be the one determining factor after all in how you vote on these things, complex as they are, yet sold, packaged and soundbited by opponents and proponents alike direct to your Id.

Proposition 31 might win the battle for the longest and most complex ballot measure. At more than 8,000 words Prop. 31 is an opus to California Forward‘s attempt to restructure and rebuild California’s government from the core. To do that it outlines nine main changes:

Establishes a two-year budget cycle

Permits the governor to make unilateral budget cuts during fiscal emergencies

Requires all bills to be published three days prior to a vote

Forces lawmakers to identify a funding source for new programs or tax deductions

Requires performance reviews

Defines specific goals for the state budget and all local government budgets

Allows local governments to transfer local property taxes among themselves.

Whew, that’s a lot.

But one component of the initiative is particularly opaque: What are these “Community Strategic Action Plans”? What are they supposed to do? KQED called California Forward’s Executive Director Kristin Connelly to ask her specifically about the plans. California Forward wrote and sponsored Prop. 31. Continue reading →